The not-for-profit event is designed to aid school children and their families prepare for the upcoming school year by providing school and home supplies for free of charge, such as haircuts, family portraits, bags of groceries, backpacks full of school supplies, and hot lunches.

Project Big Love was started five years ago by Tammy and Shon Duty of Greencastle due to Shon's childhood. Shon admitted growing up, he was a child who didn't have the newest and greatest school supplies or have new clothes or shoes to wear at the start of a new school year. So the Dutys started Project Big Love five years ago to help local children and families in need. It started with the Dutys providing backpacks and shoes to children.

"It's grown and become much, much, much more than that," Shon said.

That is the case as last year, Project Big Love gave away 10,500 bags of groceries, 1,195 backpacks with school supplies, and 1,165 pairs of shoes.

"We're hoping we can do the same or more this year," Shon said.

Cumulatively, in the last three years, Project Big Love has donated 5,170 backpacks with school supplies, 36,500 bags of groceries, 5,665 pairs of shoes, and given 1,051 haircuts and 12,400 hot lunches to 9,476 guests of honor.

"We expect all those numbers to grow along with the crowd size this year," Shon said, adding they are expecting 3,000 people to attend this year. To assist with aiding all those people, Project Big Love will have 1,000 volunteers available.

Shon said the people who are assisted at Project Big Love are called guests of honor because Project Big Love organizers and volunteers want the families being assisted to know that there are people out there concerned about them.

"We want to show them there's a community of people who care about them," Shon said. "We want want to provide a place where they feel warm and loved and welcome."

There are a few things the Dutys are looking forward to for this year's event. One is the addition of outside busing for guests of honor. There will be 15 buses traveling around the area that will bring people to the event. If attendees wish to register for a bus, they simply need to go to www.projectbiglove.org and select the Pickup Request tab at the top of the page. Bus registration ends July 23. One other new item for this year is Project Big Love organizers were able to have their own Chuck Taylor Converse tennis shoes created for children. 2,500 pairs have been created for the event.

"We want all the kids to receive the same thing," Shon said.

Project Big Love will occur at 9 a.m. Saturday, July 30, at the Mont Alto Carnival Grounds at 517 South Main Street, Mont Alto. This is a first-come-first-serve event. In addition to the free supplies given away, there will also be other activities for children such as a free bounce house and carnival-type games along with entertainment all day. For adults, there will be a community service tent and a job fair tent.